Retail Therapy

-Would you like to join the ladies when we go shopping tomorrow?

-WOULD I??????

Living on a boat with a tiny galley means I take any and every opportunity to hit the grocery stores.  Here was a chance to reprovision at a big-box store, two grocers, the marine shop for specialty light bulbs a la Steadfast, and a video store.

Marty is from Northern Ontario.  We met at happy hour by the pool at the Grand Bahama Yacht Club.  She winters in an apartment condo on the island and drives a rusted-out nissan.  The car's original paint burned off by the tropic sun several seasons ago, leaving blisters and bald patches across the surface.  A pie bald pony for sure.  A gaping hole in the dashboard where the radio used to be attests to the selectivity of robbers.  Still, it gets a body from point A to point B without having to bake in the sun walking there.

Marty recounted her tale of falling unconscious into her dinner plate three weeks ago, making her over a month late in getting here this year.  Doctors couldn't find out why she was blacking out:  TIA, Stroke, Low Blood Pressure?

-Lots of tests and no answers.

Next, she advised us to sing out if she should fail to remain on the proper side of the road while driving.  It's like England here--they drive on the left, not right side of the roads.

-It's my first time behind the wheel this season.

Lastly, I swung the car door shut as I got in and could not believe how flimsy it felt.  Was this a Toy Car--small, light and totally unsafe???  It dawned on me that I should put on my seat belt and perhaps sit in the middle of the back seat.  Things could get interesting.

My "few things" together with Marty's beach chair filled the trunk of the little toy car.  The rest had their few things, combined, on the vacant back seat beside mine.  The groceries and ship's store behind us, we headed for the video store.

-Wait a minute.  Isn't this illegal?  Can we get arrested for this????

This was a video store like none I'd ever frequented back home.  ARE there stores like this at home?  I think the RCMP keep these kinds of operations on the hush-hush, down-low, as my daughter says.  A tiny hole in the wall, barricaded with metal screening, there was enough room for four of us in the store at once:  three of us and the sales girl.  White boards announced the three for $5.00 options, New Releases, Favourites and specials.  As I walked out with 6 New Releases for $20.00, I couldn't stop myself from looking over my shoulder for the Mounties.  Duty free shopping?

There is no way to rationalize what we did.  It appears to be legal in the Bahamas, in China and who knows where else?  Is it only in non-third world countries where copy right laws apply?

We have moved "down island" as they say here, to Chubb Cay, in the Berry Island group.  Rather green around the gills for most of the six hour crossing, I failed to reel in anything more than two barracudas--those wily bandits that steal my bait and sometimes my tackle, leaving nothing but the trouble of restocking and resetting the lines.  These bruisers carry ciguatera, a neurotoxin that only the locals are brave/foolish enough to risk ingesting.  Frozen pizza and a movie, compliments of the recent shopping extravaganza and off to bed.  Rest easy my fellow bloggers.  We'll hit the beach tomorrow.